Nut



'May 4, 1948. E. A. GREEN 2,440,944

NUT

Filed Sept. 3, 1943 HI 47 7' z INVENTOR.

'wmeo A Gees/v Patented May 4, 194

NUT

Edward A. Green, Chicago, 111., assignor to Sccurity Machine Products Company, Chicago, IlL, a corporation of Delaware Application September a, 1943, Serial No. 501,168

This invention relates to a nut and more par-- ticularly to a combined holding and locking nut which is an improvement on the nut shown and described in my Patent No. 2,125,276, issued August 2, 1938.

In my said Patent No. 2,125,276 the nut is made from a bar having radial slots extending inwardly from its periphery to a circular tubular body containing the threads. The radial slots impart to the body and the threads therein high diametral resilience. The nut is distorted to have a minimum thread pitch diameter substantially less than the thread pitch diameter of the minimum standard bolt to which the nut will be applied, wherefore, the nut will have uniform frictional engagement with the threads of bolts when applied thereto, even though the threads are of varying pitch diameters provided they are manufactured within the tolerances established for commercial bolts. In other Words, the nut disclosed in my said Patent No. 2,125,276 is in the form of a tubular internally threaded member of such constant transverse section as to have a high but constantdiametral resilience from the bearing surface of the nut to its crown surface, that is, its resistance to radial expansion is uniform from end to end of the nut. The nut in my said patent is produced from special drawn shapes which are expensive to manufacture.

An object of the present invention is to provide a combined holding and locking nut so constructed that its resistance to radial expansion under bolt action at any transverse section of the nut is proportional to the bolt load, at normal loading, which any such transverse section of the nut is to bear.

Another object is to provide a combined holding and locking nut so constructed and havin its material so distributed that the nut will have its strength increased at the proper locations to adequately assume the load and resist bolt stress, thus improving its holding nut qualities while at other locations its diarhetral resilience is increased to improve its lock nut characteristics.

A further object is to provide combined holding and locking nuts that can be produced bysimple, inexpensive and eflicient manufacturing I operations, automatically if desired, from standard tapped nut blanks, as distinguished from producing the nuts more expensively from special drawn shapes.

Further and additional objects and advantages of the invention not hereinbefore expressly stated will becomeevident during the following detailed 5 Claims. (01. 151 -21) description of an embodiment of the invention.

Referring to the accompanying drawings.

Fig. Us a plan view of a combined holding and locking nut embodying the features of the present invention and is taken looking at the crow face of the nut.

N Fig. 2 is a side elevational view of the nut shown in Fig. 1.

Fig. 3 is a plan-view of said nut taken looking at the bearing face of the nut.

' Fig. 4 is a partial elevational and sectional view of the hot with the sectional portion taken on line 4-6 of Fig. 1, looking in the direction of the arrows.

Fig. 5 is a transverse vertical sectional view of the nut taken on line 55 of Fig. 1 or Fig. 6,1ooking in the direction of the arrows.

Fig.6 is' a view similar to Fi 1 but with the diametral distortion of the nut exaggerated.

Fig. '7 is a sectional view, on a larger scale, and shows the nut applied to a bolt to the extent that the nut has assumed a portion only of its normal load, and

Fig. 8 is a plan view of a standard tapped nut blank.

In Fig. 8 there is shown a standard tapped nut blank lil which'has a bore H therethrough that is cylindrical from the bearing face of the nut to the crown face thereof. This standard nut blank has'its bore provided with screw threads as indicated by dotted line [2. The wall thickness of the body of this standard nut is uniform for any transverse section of the nut and hence the nut has uniform strength for resisting bolt stresses and uniform diametral resilience from its bearing face to its crown face.

Laboratory tests have established that in a standard nut the first thread (one complete.

thread convolution) beyond itsbearing face receives the greatest portion of the bolt stress or load and that each succeeding thread of the nut toward itscrown face bears a successively reduced portion of the load. These tests have further shown that beyond a threaded length ranging between six-tenths (0.6) and eight-tenths (0.8) of the bolt diameter the remaining threads of a standard nut assume little or no load. Therefore, nuts need not be'more in height (threaded length) than eighty percent of their bolt diameter, although in actual practice standard nuts-usually have a height equal to their bolt diameter, in order to, provide adequate wrenching surfaces. With these facts in mind the construction of the nut embodying the present invention will now be explained.

The nut shown in my Patent 2,125,276 has uniform diametral resilience from end to end of the nut. It has been determined that if the diametral resilience of the patented nut be diminished from its crown face toward its bearing face, the nut would still have ample lockin effect when applied to a bolt. In addition, the nut with said variable diametral resilience when partially ap-v plied to a, boltwould receive the loadstresses in the reverse order to that in which they are assumed in a standard nut. That is, the threads. adjacent to the crown face of the nut will assume a greater proportion of the load up to approximately sixty percent ((59%) of thenorn al load than will the threads adjacent t o,tli e,bear-,, ing face of the nut. However, when the nut l as received sixty percent (60%) of the normal load all of the nut threads assu melthe-load equally. During the assumption of the remaining forty percent (40%) of the normal load the niit will et imila r w a. standard ay n th t he seiiiaesniteemin eta itheeu w wears the; eate asser on o t is r ma nin tta fiha qast 'Theinre ent nten m ee 9es a nut. wh c will have for lock nut purposes a graduallydi nin-v ehia ie et al esilieneg mai tscr wnfa eteward its bearing face while for holding nut pu'rnose th ad al strength. t e. nutwi ldi ieis from its bearing face toward its crown face in nmpert on t adassuzae h he thre de the ut. he no mally. ade n attaini these features it is, proposed to increase the wall, thickness and radial strength of the nut toward he e r n fa e he a e afqre he rea convolutions in proportion to'the loadgthey will hear. The terms crown. face? and; bearing ace e v n e ete mine and. e e respectively, to that facev of thenut which is ad; a e t mt a t ns f. he ha ite .wh chth nut is applied. and to i that, face.- of the nut which is adjacent to or in contact with onepr the parts secured together by the nut and the bolt,

Referring to.Fig s. 1 to, fi inclusiveit. will be seen that the standard hexagonal nut blank has sen m fi d-bx rminathe ein slots .3 xtenda emh rew. a e '4- Q meant the bearing face l athereof. V Thanumber of. slots, I3 brai v r e ic a i e the nut-ma be a d a desired; e i f r n n itions b t. r n. poses, of. illustration, two slots, is are shown. in, ac ec he-m 'Th lqt .lspir shrai f slots extend. in thedirection of their, depth par.- a l l. a a ia ine o a ed. nterme ia he slots of eachpair otslotslnotesecticn lines lTio and 5 of Fig. l). The'slqts I3 .v diminishindepth from thelcrown face lglof the nut toward thebearingface IS thereof andsuch diminution indepth. is. in relation-to the load to be assumed yl e h w n he etn ener a yi aclea That is, thelslots l3 areeoflessrdepthwhere the load is greatest, The, slots. l 3impart toathe nut varying-wall thicknesses and radial'strengtii from the bearing face to the crown faceof thenut and such variation .is in direct proportion to the. loads assumed by the. nut threads 'whenthe nut is nor many loaded." In othenwmds, thewallthickness i lm way. ransver e epti e.. s elate na d, e ui ment t uth el cti n. wh l l ho e manna henut havin he eaet qad ec rs-, eet 1 ar i h-i a tra sailie ta ar; eek lfiiplllp fil he l s. Lamare. an 1 he ti lenks n. nwsitaWe-war nd edes r d s ls l ateea. r i l y f the nut hqseiaienmens ieqturina.

.4 purposes it is preferred to have the slots arranged as shown in the drawing and described above.

One way of forming the slots I3 is by the use of a form milling cutter of suitable diameter which can mill successively in each side of the nut a pair of slots simultaneously. The nut and the milling cutter can be positioned relative to eachother so ,that the sweep .of the cutter through the. nut willmill; the slots ldto, the desired depth to produce the sought for wall thickness at the various thread sections. Referring to Fig. 4 the point 16 represents the center of the milling cutter and the lines li radii thereof. It will be undei stoocl that the teeth of the milling cutter will be. of, suitable form. in outline to produce slots of the desired configuration in the nut. t will be observed that the slots can thus be formed in standard nut blanks in a simple, accurate and economical manner.

From the foregoing it will be evident that the nut after the slots l3 are formed therein. Wi1l a reate iametml e il ent: a those r verse sections which bear the lesser part of the normal load than at those sections which assume the greater portion of the normal load; Also those transverse sections of the nut adjacent to thebearin face which bear the greater part of the normalload will; have greater radial strength tha will those sections adjacent the crown face andwhichbear the lesser part of the normal load.

" Inpther words, each transverse section of the nut has the attributes that enable it to play its proper part inthe correctfunctioning of the nut.

After the slots lihave been formed in the nut, the latter is distorted, especially adjacent its crown face, to have a minimum thread pitch diameter substantially less than the thread pitch diameter of the minimum standard boltto which the nut will be applied, wherefore the nut at those transverse sections of greatest diametral resilience and which bear the lesser part of the normal load willhave frictional locking engagement with the boltthreads. -In Fig. 6 the distortion of the nut is shown in exaggerated form. It will be under stood; that the distortion is scarcely discernible to the eye and therefore Fig. 1 of the drawing does not clearly illustrate the same. In Fig. 6 the circular form of'the bore I l of the nut at the crown face is indicated by thedash line 13, while the oval form that this part of the bore has after distortion along a diametral line is indicated by the full line 19; When the nut has been so distorted, itwill be seen that the nut adjacent its crown face will have an interference or tight fitupon the bolt to which it isapplied.

Figa- Tillustrates, on a largerscale, themanner inwhich the nut functions when partially applied to a bolt 20: The not when first applied to the bolt and prior to its assumingsixty percent of itsnormalloaddoes not function as does a standard-nut. Inthe present case the. threads start-to assume the load from the crown face to-,

Wardthe bearing face of thenut andwhen approximately sixty percent (60%) of the, normal loadnspnthe nut al1- of-the.threads are bearing approximately: equal portions of the load. In Fig 7;this;pereentage of the load has not been attained; and; it will be noted that clearance is shown between the threads of the nut adjacent its bea i g face andthe threads of the bolt to indicateathat said nut threads are not yet bearing any substantial part of the load While the nut threadsadiacent the. crown face are bearing the m portion of the load. However, aftersixty percent (60%) of-thenormal load has beenas sumed by the nut, the latter will function similarly to a standard nut, in that the thread convolutions adjacent the bearing face of the nut will assume the greater portion of the remaining forty percent (40%) of the normal load. These thread convolutions are at that part of the nut having the greater radial strength and, hence, are capable of taking their load requirements.

It will be understood that when the nut is applied to the bolt the latter acts to restore the distorted portion of the nut bore from its oval shape toward its original circular shape. Since this portion of the nut has the greatest diametral resilience it will be appreciated that its gripping action on the bolt serves effectively the purpose of a lock nut.

From the foregoing it will be seen that a nut embodying the present invention is a balanced nut in that the various transverse sections of the nut are each capable of meeting its particular requirements in the most efficient and complete manner. The novel and improved nut can be economically formed from standard nut blanks.

It will be obvious that the functioning of such designed nut, in taking the bolt-stress, will also function in reverse order with any reduction of the bolt-stress and tends to compensate, after the manner of a spring washer, for initial losses of bolt tension due to permanent stretch of the bolt or wear of the several surfaces of contact in service.

Although a preferred embodiment of the invention has been illustrated and described it will be understood that the invention is susceptible of various modifications and forms within the scope of the appended claims.

Having thus described my invention, I claim:

1. A nut of the type which is applied to a bolt in the manner of a standard nut with the crown face of the nut adjacent the free end of the bolt and the bearing face of the nut adjacent to the parts secured together by the nut and bolt and comprising a body having a threaded bore and provided with a plurality of peripheral slots extending substantially from the crown face of the nut to the bearing face thereof, said slots decreasing in depth from said crown face toward said bearing face and causing said body to have diminishing radial strength and increasing diametral resilience from said bearing face of the nut toward said crown face thereof.

2. A nut as defined in claim 1 and wherein said body is diametrally distorted to provide adjacent the crown face of the nut a minimum thread pitch diameter less than the minimum thread pitch diameter of any standard bolt with which the nut would be used.

3. A combined holding and locking nut of the type which is applied to a bolt in the manner of a standard nut with the crown face of the nut adjacent the free end of the bolt and the bearing face of the nut adjacent to the parts secured together by the nut and bolt and comprising a standard tapped polygonal nut blank each side of which is provided with a plurality of slots extending from the crown face of the nut to the bearing face thereof and diminishing in depth from said crown face to said bearing face to provide increasing radial strength and decreasing diametral resilience, said blank being distorted to have adjacent the crown face of the nut a minimum thread pitch diameter less than the minimum thread pitch diameter of any standard bolt with which the nut would be used.

l. A nut as defined in claim 3 and wherein the slots in each side of the blank are parallel to each other in the direction of their depth.

5. A combined holding and locking nut of the type which is applied to a bolt in the manner of a standard nut with the crown face of the nut adjacent the free end of the bolt and the bearing face of the nut adjacent to the parts secured together by the nut and bolt and comprising a standard tapped polygonal nut blank of constant cross sectional area from end to end and with the sides of the blank provided with slots extending from the crown face of the nut to the bearing face thereof and diminishing in depth from said crown face to said bearing face to provide increasing radial strength and decreasing diametral resilience.

EDWARD A. GREEN.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 1,978,229 Sass et a1 Oct. 23, 1934 2,125,276 Green Aug. 2, 1938 

